Tire.



T. TOOMEY.

TIRE.

APPLIOATION FILED 111111.28, 1911.

Patented Sept. 3, 1912.

[NT/ENTOR WIT/V5 555 THOMAS TOOMEY, 0F SCRANTON, PENNSYLVANIA.

TIRE. a

Specificatqn of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 3,., 1912.

Application led March 28, 1911. Serial No. 617,395.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS TooMnY, of Scranton, in the county of Lackawanna and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain `new and useful Improvements in Tires; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, andexact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to improvements in tires and more particularly to such as are adaptable for use with automobile wheels,- the object of the invention being to construct a tire in such manner as to avoid the great expense incident to the use of pneumatic and cushion tires employing rubber and fabric in their construction.

A further object is to provide an automobile tire which shall be composed largely of wood and to provide such a tire with simple and efcient means which can be easily applied or replaced, for preventing skidding, and thus avoid the use of and expense incident to chains heretofore employed on .automobile tires for this purpose.

With these objects in view the invention consists in certain novel features of construction and combinations of parts as hereinafter setl forth and pointed out in the claim.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a view of a portion of a tireembodying my improvements. Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view through the tire and through one of the wedge blocks having a shoe thereon. Fig. 3 is a detail view of one of the shoes, and Fig. i is a longitudinal sectional view of a portion of the channel rim with the wedgeblock removed.

The rim port-ion of my improved tire is preferably made of steel and of channel form,l comprising an annular band or rim l with side flanges 2 of sufficient width to form asomewhatdeep channel.

Within the channel rim, wedge-shaped woodeniblocks which constitute the body of the tire per se, are placed and in order to prevent displacement of said blocks, the inner walls of the fianges 2 of the channel rim are roughened 1n any suit-able manner so that when said blocks are forced into place between the flanges 2 they will beu tightly held.

I prefer to make the blocks o-r wedges of hard wood such as lhickory and to form their outer faces which constitute the tread of the tire, curved or convex.

In constructing the tire, I employ two scries of wedge-blocks 3 and 4:, the blocks 3 having plain convex outer tread portions and the blocks 4 being made somewhat shorter in depth than the blocks 3 and provided with dovetail heads 5 for thereception of shoes 6. By reason of the dovetail connection of the shoes to the blocks 4, radial and lateral displacement of said shoes will be prevented. Each shoe G is disposed between two blocks 3 and will be revented by the latter from lengthwise or circumfer ential displacement, without necessity for other fastening. The bottom of each block i is provided with a tenon 7 to enter a socket 8 in the base of the channel rim l. The shoe 6 is made of metal, preferably cast and chilled and is made of such dimensions that when it is placed in posit-ion on a wedge-block 4, its outer convex face will be in alinement with the outer convex faces which constitute the tread portions of the blocks 3. Each shoe 6 is provided with a 9plurality of projections 8a which may be cast integral with the shoe and when the shoe shall have been chilled, said projections will be veryV hard. Any desired number of the blocks 4 and shoes 6 may be employed.

Slight changes might-'be made in the general form and arrangement of the parts described without. departing from my invention, and hence I would have it understood that I do not restrict-myself to the precise details set forth, but consider myself at 11berty to make such slight changes and alterati-ons as fairly fall within the spirit and scope of my invention. T

Having fully described my lnvention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Y m Loef/,ese

beyond the side ange of saidchannei rim,l

the outer ends of the blocks of one set forming portions of-the tread of the tire and the outer ends of the blocks of the other set provided with dovetaii heads, and metal shoes mounted on said dovetail heads and abutting at their ends against adjacent blocks of the rst-mentioned set oonstitut- 'ing portions of the tread of the tire, each metal shoe hailing a plurality of projections 10 

